Michael Gove's department have been criticised after ignoring advice from and independent panel to sell school playing fields. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty

The Department for Education failed to include a school in Cornwall that hosted the Olympic flame in a list of school playing fields whose sale has been approved.

Newquay Tretherras school, which hosted the flame in May, received approval in principle last month from education secretary Michael Gove to sell a portion of its land which is used for football and cricket. The school has confirmed it is in preliminary discussions with Tesco to develop the site.

The school's application was not included in a list of sell-offs and pending applications disclosed by Gove in May, or in an updated list published this week. It may have been omitted because it is an academy, a type of school that is state-funded but run independently.

Such schools have to ask the department for education for approval to dispose of playing fields - but their applications do not have to be considered by the school playing fields advisory panel, which advises Gove on sales of pitches.

Newquay Tretherras school hosted the Olympic torch on the first leg of its relay through the UK in May. The school's director of sport described it as a "fantastic once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" for students and local people to witness the flame.

Valerie Martin, who is leading a campaign against the sale, said: "The land is used by the school and used by the community. There's soccer teams on there and cricket teams. It's a running field and it was used to host the Olympic flame when it came through Newquay. This is not a campaign against Tesco, it's a campaign against any building on this playing field."

Gove has apologised for publishing misleading figures about the sell-off in a row that has tarnished the coalition's commitment to grassroots sport.

The education secretary has denied misleading the public. He told the BBC: "Playing fields are better protected under this government than at any time before."

Gove has ignored the opposition of his independent experts, the school playing fields advisory panel to approve sell-offs five times in the past 15 months. The Sport and Recreation Alliance, an umbrella organisation for sports bodies, said it was "very concerned" if the panel's judgement was being ignored.

It said in a statement: "The panel judges applications against a set of strict criteria and the alliance believes the recommendations the panel makes should only be discounted in the most exceptional of circumstances."

The statement added: "Historically, when a minister has overturned the panel's recommendations, he has written to the chair of the panel to advise him and to explain the reason. No such letter or advice has been received by the panel or its chair."

Stephen Twigg MP, the shadow education secretary, put pressure on Gove to explain why he had overruled the panel. He said: "David Cameron once promised a new era of transparency. Michael Gove must now publish the reasons for overturning the panel and all the correspondence on the sale of playing fields."

The five cases in which the panel was ignored included Woodhouse middle school in Staffordshire, Clarborough primary school in Nottinghamshire, Elliott school in Putney, south-west London, where fields are being sold off to pay for a major refurbishment, and Ingleton middle school in North Yorkshire. A decision to approve a sale at Netley primary school in Camden was approved by ministers despite being withdrawn.

Cllr David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, said: "We are concerned that ministers seem to be increasingly disregarding the advice of the independent school playing fields advisory panel and have approved five cases recommended for refusal in the last 15 months, more than for the whole of the previous nine years.

"We are also concerned that this is likely to become more of a problem in years to come as we see more and more schools taking on academy status and becoming exempt from the guidance that applies to other schools."

Gove has also relaxed government regulations that set out the minimum outdoor space that schools have to provide for team games. Campaigners fear the new rules – which were approved on the eve of the Olympic Games – will pave the way for the further sell-offs of playing fields and endanger the ability of schools to provide sport for future generations.

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